Micro ATM introduced to municipalities

The micro ATM is suited for small and medium scale enterprises, especially in the rural areas where the conventional ATM is inaccessible.

As automated teller machines (ATM) are found only in highly urbanized cities and municipalities, FEXCO Philippines launched in Cebu City a mobile based app known as EasyDebit as part of the program to widen financial inclusion among Filipinos.

Fexco Philippines chairman and co-founder Ann Chan Foley said, “We know that we can do so much more to address the inherent need of so many Filipinos for financial services. Through EasyDebit we are tackling this problem head on with accessible technology. This is fintech at work. This is accessible innovation.”

The goal is to serve as a bridge between Filipinos who have limited or no access to the various financial services through a low-investment, easy-to-install device that is quick to deploy among interested merchants, including banks, cooperatives, remittance and payments centers, pawnshops and retail businesses such as convenience, even small sari-sari stores.

Its target markets are the small and medium scale enterprises (SME), especially in the rural areas where ATM are inaccessible.

She said FEXCO has partnered with Mindanao-based Cantilan Bank, the Rural Bank of Rizal and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP)-owned Al-Amanah Islamic Bank to enable the rapid and low-cost deployment of banking services to underserviced areas.

EasyDebit was launched in December 2017 as the country’s first-ever cash withdrawal solution using a pin entry device and mobile phone that allows customers to withdraw cash using their ATM card at any number of locally accredited merchants instead of having to travel to an ATM.

Its basic operating requirements are: Internet connectivity or minimum of 2G Data Connection; Android phone version 4 and above and revolving cash fund to distribute for withdrawals.

Based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas statistics, 77 percent of Filipinos are unbanked adults. There are in existence 82 million issued ATM/debit cards and 21,844 ATM machines.

In terms on existing banks accessibility, there are 11,888 bank branches in the Philippines as of March 2019.

Thirty-four percent of the municipalities do not have a bank branch while seven percent of municipalities have no financial access points.

There are 1,489 municipalities,145 cities and 81 provinces.